Before we take a closer look at this week’s topic, we’d first like to apologise for this article’s delay. We ran into some unforeseen complications that resulted in Monday’s article going up a day late. We’ve taken steps to avoid this delay in the future, and to keep our Monday, Wednesday, Friday article cycle on track. Enough about that—let’s get into this week’s theme: Momentum.

One of the most important dynamic elements of Guild Ball is Momentum, and how it can be used to affect the game. Momentum can be used to remove conditions, heal models, help them move over rough-ground, to increase a model’s defence during a Charge, or even to provide that crucial Counter-Attack. It also contributes towards the initiative roll for the following turn, making it an important commodity that a coach doesn’t want to waste or use too much of. Spending Momentum is a gamble, which is what makes spending it such a difficult decision – do you go all out to have that perfect turn, or save it so that you’re more likely to win the initiative roll for the next one?

With Momentum and dynamic gameplay in mind as we started development for Season 3, we saw an opportunity for us to make every coach’s Guild Ball experience even better. This was by tweaking the impact of the initiative roll.

Momentum tokens are even included in Kick Off! As you can see we've got more to talk about next week!

Something which we were keen to address was to underscore the importance of the decision to go first or second, after winning the initiative roll. Throughout Seasons 1 and 2, coaches more often than not would choose to go first. This made sense – it’s a big part of why coaches tried to generate the most Momentum after all. But going into Season 3, we wanted to make this more of a decision, and to give a little more parity to the start of the turn. After all, there’s nothing worse than always being on the back foot during gameplay, and feeling as though you can’t get back into the game. Whilst this doesn’t happen often in Guild Ball, we wanted to minimise the opportunities for it to arise during games.

In Season 3, after the initiative roll is made, the coach that wins the roll is presented with a difficult choice. They can still choose to have the first activation, BUT the coach that goes second starts with [1] point of Momentum. That might not sound like much but just think for a moment… that point of Momentum could be spent on that crucial Defensive Stance, a Counter-Attack to knock down or Push away the opposition, or even to remove the conditions on your model, and get them right back into the action. By choosing to go first, you open up a wealth of tactical opportunities to your opponent, so be sure to choose wisely.

Most coaches walk a fine line, and careful use of Momentum can be the difference between winning and losing a game - learning to use it well is often the first step a coach takes on the path to greatness. What we’ve achieved by making this change is to create a better gameplay experience for all coaches, and to make Guild Ball even more accessible to the newer members of our community.

Check back tomorrow, where we’ll continue our Momentum theme with a look at the ways in which models generate Momentum via their Playbook – including new card reveals for two models that have seen dynamic changes in the Season 3 update!